Jonathan Bean lives in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in a yellow brick building, on the third floor, above a café, in a small apartment where he keeps all his money and jewels on the doorstep, so thieves can find them, but sleeps with his drawings under the mattress. He can sometimes be spotted down the street at his favorite bookstore, The Midtown Scholar, or around town drawing people or watering his rooftop garden. If you tell him making picture books is the best job in the world he will agree.After receiving his undergraduate degree from Messiah College, Jonathan moved to New York City in 2003 to attend graduate school at the School of Visual Arts. He received his first job illustrating for children when hired by Cricket in 2004. Since then, Jonathan's worked for numerous publishers and his illustration and writing have received widespread recognition. He has illustrated six picture books and just won his second Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for his latest book, Building Our House. His next book, Big Snow, arrives this Fall.